A strategic collaboration has been facilitated by the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center in California under an agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc. to apply Nodality's proprietary Single Cell Network Profiling (SCNP) technology to immunology R&D programs. The goal of the collaboration is to improve the development and probability of success of compounds for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease by further understanding the biologic function and activity at the single cell level. The agreement also provides an option to develop companion diagnostics that may arise from the collaboration.

Under the terms of the agreement, Nodality will receive an upfront payment and support for research activities.

Laura Brege, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nodality, said, "We are excited to apply our technology to enhance the drug discovery activities of Janssen. This collaboration is our third major strategic pharmaceutical partnership applying SCNP to drug development. We look forward to providing Janssen with clinically and commercially actionable results and to working closely with their teams."

It is widely acknowledged that biologic profiling of individual patients and diseases from a systems biology perspective can improve therapeutic development and use. Much of the difficulty in drug development stems from the complexity of the biology involved and the incomplete understanding of the pathogenesis of different diseases. Nodality's SCNP is designed to better understand this pathogenesis and heterogeneity and therefore patients' responses to therapies. Nodality currently uses SCNP to validate therapeutic targets, compare agents against these targets, efficiently advance targeted agents, and develop novel diagnostics.